Windows believes my hard drive is only 5 GB (even thought it is 300 GB)

[Paul B.]

Hi,

When I boot into windows XP, it thinks the hard drive size is 5 GB, even
thought it is over 300 GB. Everything on the drive is accessable, but I
keep on receiving errors about being out of disk space.

This all started when I tried to install Windows 2003 server on a spare
partition (don't get me started). I have booted off the XP cd and typed
fixmbr and fixboot numerous times. I have also used a program called
testboot, and gpart to recover the partition information.

The BIOS sees the drive as a 300 GB and when I boot into Linux (off a live
CD) I also see the drive as 300 GB.


Ideas?

Thanks!

Paul

 

[Ron Martell]

Hi,

When I boot into windows XP, it thinks the hard drive size is 5 GB, even
thought it is over 300 GB. Everything on the drive is accessable, but I
keep on receiving errors about being out of disk space.

This all started when I tried to install Windows 2003 server on a spare
partition (don't get me started). I have booted off the XP cd and typed
fixmbr and fixboot numerous times. I have also used a program called
testboot, and gpart to recover the partition information.

The BIOS sees the drive as a 300 GB and when I boot into Linux (off a live
CD) I also see the drive as 300 GB.


Ideas?

Use Start - Run - DISKMGMT.MSC

That should show you information about the disk drive in total and how
it is partitioned. You may have a large quantity of unpartitioned
space on the drive.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Paul B.]

Figured it out. Had a number of problems. The first problem was my Windows
XP disk was the original Windows XP, and not the XP with Service Pack 2. So
it could only read a drive 137 GB and smaller. When I tried to recover the
drive, the XP disk corrupted my partition.

The partition can be fixed using testdisk ... which runs under Windows and
Linux.

Next I would receive the blue screen of death on bootup. The reasoning was
Windows 2003 server placed disk quotas on my XP drive, thus giving only 5 GB
of drive space.

Removing disk quotas fixed the problem.

What a day.

Paul